Toy vehicle



E. E. FOSTER April 15, 1958 TOY VEHICLE Filed July 19, 1955 FIG 4- FIG1 INVENTOR. fan/0v 5 F0; 715? United States Patent TOY VEHICLE Edwin E. Foster, Austin, Tex., assignor to Majik-Ironers, Inc., Austin, Tex., a corporation of Texas Application July 19, 1955, Serial No. 522,951

7 Claims. (Cl. 46-206) This invention relates to a toy of the inertia type in the nature of a wheeled toy capable of being propelled in both directions.

It is an object of the invention to provide a toy in the form of a four-wheeled automobile, with a mechanical device which will not only permit the vehicle to return practically to its starting point but also to adjust the mechanism for creating more power for the return movement of the vehicle. Another object of the invention resides in the provision of a cone-shaped sleeve mounted to rotate on one of the axles of the toy vehicle, preferably on the rear axle.

A still further object of the invention resides in the operating structure of a wheeled vehicle toy which is provided with a spiral spring motor connected to the driving axle in such a way that the inertia created by a push on the vehicle will result in a forward run or a run away from the operator which will wind the spiral spring so that it will, when all inertia has ceased, run in the backward direction toward the operator.

Further objects will be apparent from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a bottom plan view of the vehicle partly in section,

Fig. 2 is a cross section through one axle taken on line 2--2 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a cross section through the spring motor taken on line 33 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic side elevation of the entire vehicle.

The toy may, of course, simulate any type of vehicle and as shown the invention is applied to an automobile 1. A spring motor 2 may be secured to the underside of the plate 3 of the vehicle and the wheels 4 of the vehicle are mounted on axles 5 and 6.

The motor 2 comprises a drum 7 having a spring ribbon spiral spring 8 arranged therein. The spring 8 is secured at one end 9 to a sleeve 10 secured on a pin or rivet 11 and the other end 12 is secured to the internal surface of the drum 7. In this way the drum 7 is capable of rotation as urged by the spring 8.

A string or cable 13 is secured at one end to the outer periphery of the drum 7 and the other end is secured to the shaft or axle 6 preferably through a perforation in the axle 6 with an enlarged abutment 14 to prevent the cable 13 from slipping through the perforation in the axle.

In order to compensate for travel of the vehicle on soft or inclined surface more power may be obtained by the use of the cone-shaped sleeve 15 which constitutes the important feature of the invention. The sleeve 15 has a slot 16 therein extending longitudinally approximately one half the length of the sleeve. In order to provide for the rotation of the sleeve 15 with the axle 6 and to permit longitudinal sliding of the sleeve on the axle, a pin 17 is provided in the axle and projecting into the slot 16.

In the operation of the toy, the vehicle 1 in the position of the parts as shown in Fig. 1, when given a push on a floor, the vehicle will run along the floor for a certain distance at the same time winding up the cable 13 on the sleeve 15 to the position of cable 13 as indicated by dash lines in Fig. 1 with the cable wound on the sleeve by adjacent loops the-rearound. In its farthest travel where inertia of the pushed vehicle ceases, the spring 8 will have been wound up by the unwinding of the cable from the drum 7. Then the spring 7 will pull the cable 13 to rewind the latter back on the drum as the spring unwinds during which the vehicle tends to return to the starting point or nearly so depending upon the frictional resistance in the moving parts of the vehicle. Thus the vehicle on a forward manual push, will roll over the floor a certain distance dependent on the force of the push and when the force has been used up by linear travel the vehicle will return with accelerated speed even overreaching the original starting point and then back thus participating in a number of decreasing reciprocating motions. If the surface on which the vehicle is travelling is soft, such as on a rug, it is only necessary to shift the sleeve 15 from the H position to the L position so that the spring will exert a seemingly stronger pull, but in reality some distance travelled must be sacrificed. The sleeve 15 may be shifted to any intermediate position from the full line position in Fig. l to the dot and dash position in order to effect the desired force of the spring motor relative to the surface over which the toy is supposed to travel.

The ribbon spiral spring 8 is a reverse Wound spiral ribbon spring which is maintained within the drum 7 around which the cable 13 winds and unwinds. The reverse spiral wind of the spring 8 is one in which the ribbon is wound opposite to the coiling force of the spring.

I claim as my invention:

1. A toy vehicle comprising a spring motor, a coneshaped sleeve slidably fixed on one of the axles of the vehicle and being capable of axial sliding adjustment on the axle, and a cable connected to the spring motor at one end and to the axle at the other end and associated with the cone-shaped sleeve to be wound thereon, the position of the sleeve on the axle relative to the part where the cable starts to wind on the sleeve determining the power transmitted to the driven axle.

2. A toy vehicle comprising a spring motor including a drum rotated by the spring, a cone-shaped sleeve slidably fixed on one of the axles of the vehicle and being capable of axial sliding adjustment on the axle, and a cable connected to the drum of the spring motor and associated with the cone-shaped sleeve, the position of the sleeve on the axle relative to the part where the cable starts to wind on the sleeve determining the power transmitted to the driven axle, said sleeve having an axial slot therein extending approximately half the length of the sleeve through which one end of the cable projects and is fastened to the axle.

3. A toy vehicle comprising a spring motor including a drum rotated by the spring, a cone-shaped sleeve slidably fixed on one of the axles of the vehicle and being capable of axial sliding adjustment on the axle, a cable connected to the drum of the spring motor and associated with the cone-shaped'sleeve, the position of the sleeve on the axle relative to the part where the cable starts to wind on the sleeve determining the power transmitted to the driven axle, said sleeve having an axial slot therein extending approximately half the length of the sleeve through which one end of the cable projects and is fastened to the axle, and a pin fixed to the axle on which the sleeve is mounted and projecting into the slot of the sleeve to secure the sleeve on the shaft to rotate therewith, but permitting axial sliding of the sleeve on its axle.

4. A toy vehicle comprising a spring motor including a rotatable drum driven by the spring, a cone-shaped sleeve slidably fixed on one of the axles of the vehicle and being capable of axial sliding adjustment on the axle, and a cable connected to the drum of the spring motor and associated with the cone-shaped sleeve, the position of the sleeve on the axle relative to the part where the cable starts to wind on the sleeve determining the power transmitted to the driven axle, said spring motor comprising a spiral spring provided in the drum with the cable secured to the peripheral surface of the drum to wind and unwind therefrom.

5. A toy vehicle comprising a spring motor including a rotatable drum driven by the spring, a cone-shaped sleeve slidably fixed on one of the axles of the vehicle and being capable of axial sliding adjustment on the axle, and a cable connected to the drum of the spring motor and associated with the cone-shaped sleeve, the position of the sleeve on the axle relative to the part where the cable starts to wind on the sleeve determining the power transmitted to the driven axle, said spring motor comprising a spiral spring provided in the drum with the cable secured to the peripheral surface of the drum to wind and unwind therefrom and the spring being composed of a ribbon wound in the drum in reverse to the normal coil force.

6. In a toy vehicle, a transmissionfor a wheel axle from a spring motor comprising a cone-shaped sleeve slidably secured on the axle to rotate therewith and provided with a slot extending at least partially along the 4 length of the sleeve to permit the relative sliding motion of the sleeve, means secured to the axle and extending into the slot to rotatively connect the sleeve with the axle but to permit the axial adjustment of the sleeve on the axle by said sliding motion, and a connecting element to the motor and the axle and adapted to wind and un wind itself around the sleeve to drive the vehicle.

77 In a toy vehicle, a transmission for a wheel axle from a spring motor comprising a cone-shaped sleeve slidably secured on the axle to rotate therewith and provided with a slot extending at least partially along the length of the sleeve to permit the relative sliding motion of the sleeve, means secured to the axle and extending into the slot to rotatively connect the sleeve with the axle but to permit the axial adjustment of the sleeve on the axle by said sliding motion, and string connected to the motor and axle and extending through the slot to the axle and adapted to wind and unwind itself around the sleeve to drive the vehicle.

References Cited inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 130,987 Grimshaw Sept. 30, 1872 FOREIGN PATENTS 551,196 France Jan. 2, 1923 1,084,919 France July 13, 1954 

